90 FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 



traders. There were traders at Fort Wrangel, where they bought furs 

 from everybody that came in there. At Sitka there was the same sort 

 of business going on. There was no organized company, no incorpo- 

 rated company. From there we went to Kodiak, and there there was 

 the Western Fur and Trading Company and the Alaska Commercial 

 Company, and 2 miles across, upon Wood Island, the Eussian-Amer- 

 ican Company, whose principal business was to put up ice for San Fran- 

 cisco, for which they received subsidies, but never shipped their ice. 

 The natives who lived upon that island put up their ice and furnished 

 furs, for which they were paid out of the store, so there were three com- 

 panies at Kodiak. At Ounga there were two companies, the Alaska 

 and Western Fur and Trading Company. At Belkofsky there were 

 two companies, the Western Fur and Trading Company and the Alaska 

 Commercial Company. 



At St. Michaels, which is near the mouth of the Yukon Eiver, the 

 landing place for the Yukon furs, there were also two companies, and 

 the relations of the two companies at that time, the Alaska and the 

 Western, was such at St. Michaels, where we staid, I suppose, three 

 days on shore there, that I know the agent of the Alaska Company went 

 over with the revenue steamer people to the Western Fur and Trading 

 Company's agency, and they all took dinner together. These companies 

 were in existence at that time, 1879, and their relations, so far as I could 

 see, were perfectly friendly. We had a dance at Kodiak, and the Rus- 

 sian-American Company and the Western Company and the Alaska 

 agent were, all hands, at the dance together. 



Q. Did there seem to be a healthy competition? — A. There was a 

 pretty lively competition, I understood, in the trade. At Athka, I 

 recollect, there were two companies and the trade was very poor. Over 

 at Kishka and at Attoo the people were very poor; I think there were 

 only four or five sea-otter skins in the company's fur-house. 



I asked the agent at Oonalaska, who covered that district, why he did 

 not break up the station at Attoo and remove the people, and he said it 

 was because the people did not want to leave there. They were attached 

 to their old homes. It had formerly been a good hunting ground, but 

 the sea otter had left, and they did not want to remove the people, as the 

 people felt very badly about it. They had to maintain a store, and they 

 put the store in charge of the priest, who acted for both the company and 

 the church. That was a very poor community. I will now answer some 

 questions you asked awhile ago. 



Now about the seal islands. I was about four years in charge of 

 St. George. I visited St. Paul several times on the steamer that left 

 our island to go over there. They are 40 miles apart. St. Paul is 40 

 miles due north from St. George. On a clear day you can see St. Paul 

 from St. George. They can see St. George from St. Paul almost any 

 day because of the high, rocky cliffs on this island. The other island, 

 St. Paul, is sandy, and of a lower formation. I was on the island four 

 years and am pretty familiar with the inhabitants. I am familiar as 

 anybody could be in that time, because I attended to my duties and 

 watched the affairs of the natives ; and my impression is that the na- 

 tives of that island were as well off as a mechanic in San Francisco at 

 $1,000 a year. They had free house rent, they had free fuel, free fish, 

 free meat, free medical attendance, free drugs, free schools, free school- 

 books, and the only tax imposed upon them was by the church. They 

 had only to buy tea, tobacco, crackers, calico, etc., and things they 

 needed to wear. The prices of goods were on a list hung up in the 

 store at St. George. I thin|: a 48-pound sack of flour was 75 cents, and 



